Chattervox
Infrastructure
amateur radio protocol
SHOW HN2018
How HN took it
8 positive, 17 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 0 critical, out of 25 comments about the project. Thread score +0.32.
Idea: 4 for, 0 againstPrivacy: 2 for, 0 againstDocs: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Clear, down-to-earth project description
From 2 comments
An AX.25 packet radio chat protocol with support for digital signatures and binary compression. Like IRC over radio waves I just wanted to say thank you for such a concise, clear…
hfdgiutdryg on HNThanks mate! I appreciate that. I was looking for a way to describe it that seemed as down to earth as possible. Actually I was trying to go for that with most of the…
braxxox on HN
Signatures for verifying senders are a good idea
From 2 comments
> With amateur packet radio anyone can pretend to be anyone else. With Chattervox, you can be sure you're chatting with the person you intend to. This is a great idea, for both…
leetbulb on HNPretty neat. I like the ECDSA for remote control.
howard941 on HN
Objections
Encryption is illegal on amateur bands, so signing-only is the workaround
From 3 comments
Cool project! I have always been interested in the amateur radio scene. So encrypting amateur radio comms is illegal in the US? Is there a particular reason for this?
Cyph0n on HNThis one is not encrypted. Its plaintext or compressed (gzip I think). Crypto is only for digital signatures.
M0 on HNThat's what this project does. It does signing, just not encryption. I would argue that this is OK legally.
wedowhatwedo on HN
No forward error correction, so one flipped bit breaks decoding
From 1 comment
Does this do any sort of FEC? One of the things that makes stuff like this tricky(and APRS in general) is that one flipped bit throws off the whole decode. From what I've seen…
vvanders on HN
Requests
Add timestamps or sequence numbers to prevent replay and detect gaps
From 2 comments
Maybe messages should include a coarse timestamp to prevent replay of old messages by some adversary. Someone could resend a month old "yes" with your valid signature to a…
ysleepy on HNFantastic idea! I intend to implement this in an upcoming release of the protocol and have opened an RFC to discuss this addition here:…
braxxox on HN
Add forward error correction
From 1 comment
Does this do any sort of FEC? One of the things that makes stuff like this tricky(and APRS in general) is that one flipped bit throws off the whole decode. From what I've seen…
vvanders on HN
A GNU Radio implementation
From 2 comments
I would love to another version of this using gnuradio and lime sdr mini (or similar)
mycall on HNThat's a great idea! The protocol can be implemented entirely separate from this first TypeScript client application. If anyone out there has gnuradio experience, I'd love to…
braxxox on HN
Questions
Is encryption legal on amateur radio bands?
From 1 comment
Cool project! I have always been interested in the amateur radio scene. So encrypting amateur radio comms is illegal in the US? Is there a particular reason for this?
Cyph0n on HN
Does the protocol use FEC?
From 1 comment
Does this do any sort of FEC? One of the things that makes stuff like this tricky(and APRS in general) is that one flipped bit throws off the whole decode. From what I've seen…
vvanders on HN
Alternatives named
Broadband-HamNet
From 1 comment
> A decentralized, no-carrier/ISP, disaster-tolerant medium for private communication would be amazing. That can be done without encryption, though. Take a look at…
int_19h on HN
Codec2 and AMBE digital voice modes
From 1 comment
The AMBE-3000 vocoder chip (used for pretty much all of the digital modes, including D-STAR and DMR) retails for about $50, before volume discount. Which is not a small mount of…
tjohns on HN